In June of 2002 it became known that the Self Defense Agency (SDA) investigated the backgrounds of and made Lists of individuals who had applied for information disclosure requests to the SDA under the Information Disclosure Law, and then circulated the lists among its top staff. There were more than one hundred names on the lists, and they came from a wide range of backgrounds, including a former Self Defense Force officer and an ombudsman.
On July 1, 2002, the JCLU issued and sent to the director general of the SDA a statement strongly protesting the organizational creation and distribution of the lists in questions.
The statement points out and sternly protests that these acts violate the current Law for Protection of Personal Information Held by Administrative Agencies which allows administrative agencies only to hold personal information files for a specific purpose as necessary to carry out their duties as provided for by law, and that the act of distributing the lists is prohibited under the same law as the leakage and use with unjust purpose of personal information learned during the course of their assignment.
The JCLU calls upon the government to undertake a thorough investigation, to consider punishment of those responsible and to establish measures necessary for the proper management by government agencies of personal information to prevent any threat to the right to know, the individual's right to control his or her own personal information, and the freedoms of assembly and association.